A contact center may be used by a provider to initiate a session that enables a user to request information and/or have an issue or service handled by the provider addressed. The contact center may be equipped with an automated system that requests information from the user to properly provide the requested service. Specifically, the automated system may receive initial information to generally determine a category of the requested service. Subsequently, the contact center may forward the session to an agent or continue utilizing the automated system.
The session may be performed in a variety of different manners. In a first manner, the session may be performed in non-real-time such as with email. In a second manner, the session may be performed in real-time or near real-time. For example, in real-time, the automated system may provide voice prompts over a voice and/or video communication such as a telephone/video call in which the information is requested. In another example, in near real-time, the automated system may provide input fields in a session form that the user enters prior to the session being initiated. Subsequently, the automated system may activate the session as a chat session. In a further example, the chat session may be activated immediately in which the information is requested during the chat session.
When the sessions are performed by the contact center as a chat session, the contact center may select when to forward the chat session to an agent. For example, a forwarding procedure may be performed in a seamless manner where the agent is provided a transcript and/or other information of the exchange between the automated system and the user to continue the chat session as if the agent had been participating the entire time. Furthermore, the agent may handle multiple concurrent chat sessions depending upon how many users the agent is selected to interact. When such a scenario presents itself, the agent may be incapable of providing responses in a timely manner that may cause the user to terminate the chat session early.
Although creating a negative user experience, the agent being inundated with sessions also creates an inefficient use of the contact center. Conventional automated systems are only configured to transfer the session from the automated system to the agent so that the agent may continue the chat session until its completion. During peak times where the agents are occupied to capacity with sessions, the agents may no longer be able to take on any further sessions. The surplus users will therefore be kept waiting until an agent becomes available which furthers the inefficient use of the contact center.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method to determine a manner of utilizing the automated system in a more efficient manner to increase optimization of an agent time.